Gory Photo Can Serve As Cautionary Tale

There are some who will look at the photo of the lifeless body, albeit covered body, of George Geano and wonder why a community newspaper would run such a gory image on its front page. Some will say that the photo was run to sell papers under the old and honored newspaper motto, "If it bleeds, it leads." Others will say that The Wave has no consideration for the family of the 26-year-old man who died on Monday night when his motorcycle struck the rear end of a Call-A-Head truck on Cross Bay Boulevard. There was, of course, a discussion on whether to use the graphic photographic, as there always is in such cases, and the decision was that the image might well serve as a cautionary tale to those who use that deadly stretch of road where several motorists have been killed in the past two years. The long stretch of blacktop running from the North Channel Bridge to Broad Channel is seductive. It is three lanes in each direction and void of all but a few impediments such as stoplights or major curves. That seductiveness has pulled in many drivers, causing them to put the pedal to the metal. Some have died. We do not yet know what caused this accident. We have heard many rumors about both the motorcycle's speed and the truck's actions that night, none of which can be confirmed by police because the investigation by the NYPD's Accident Investigation Division is ongoing. We do know, however, that something must be done to remediate the seductiveness of the road, perhaps by adding more stoplights and stepping up enforcement of the 40 miles per hour speed limit. Cross Bay Boulevard is a major road, transitioning Rockaway drivers from the peninsula to the rest of Queens and beyond. We don't want it to become another "Road of Death."